Choking dog finds a savior in A Pocono Country Place

When family dog Dino grabbed a chicken bone several weeks ago, his owners lunged to take it away from him, as they usually do when he eats something he shouldn't.

JENNA EBERSOLE

When family dog Dino grabbed a chicken bone several weeks ago, his owners lunged to take it away from him, as they usually do when he eats something he shouldn't.

But the situation took a rapid turn.

As Dino began to chew more quickly, the large end of the bone got lodged in his throat. In a panic, the A Pocono Country Place family tried anything they could to help.

"He just started like foaming at the mouth, and you could tell that he was struggling to breathe," owner Ruthy Rivera said.

Rivera soon jumped into the car to rush Dino, a chihuahua and Jack Russell mix, to a hospital.

Her daughter was in the back seat with Dino, and they were driving toward the exit when he went limp in her arms. Rivera rushed instead to A Pocono Country Place welcome center, telling her daughter to run in with Dino.

When Rivera arrived after her daughter, she found Carolyn Snell, who works at the welcome center, reaching down Dino's throat and removing the bone before giving him mouth-to-mouth.

Eventually, Dino started blinking.

"After a while, it's like, his ear twitched," Rivera said.

Snell said that when she saw the girl run in, she thought at first she was holding an infant and immediately ran around the desk. Snell, who had been trained in adult and infant CPR, said she soon saw the small dog, which had a blue tongue and eyes glazing over.

Snell, a longtime animal lover, said her mother raised dachshunds for show when she was a teen. Snell said her mother taught her what to do if a newborn puppy stopped breathing during the birth process.

As a teacher in Washington state, she worked with at-risk students who brought in beaten animals or animals hit on the road. Students learned responsibility through helping rehabilitate the animals, she said. Snell retired and moved to Arizona before coming to the Poconos about two years ago to be closer to her daughter.

When the crisis hit, Snell said she told Rivera's daughter to watch carefully and learn. She pulled out the chicken bone, then breathed two gentle breaths into Dino.

Dino did not begin moving for about 10 minutes.

"It felt really good seeing that little thing finally be able to stand on its own and take water," she said.

Rivera said Dino didn't bark again until the next day, but he is back to his old self, even if the family still refers to him as "stupid dog" as they always did, Rivera laughed.

Rivera said she and her family brought Snell flowers to thank her. "It was just dumb luck, or very good luck, on his part and on all of our parts," she said.

Now, Dino is away staying in New York with Rivera's brother, who has a female chihuahua.